2009 Suzuki Equator

"The fact is it was just more fun to drive, especially off road," editors say of the Equator. It excels in the sand and places highly in rock crawling, hill climbing, high-speed dirt and asphalt testing. Editors say they were very surprised that a "nondescript midsize truck" with no locking front differential could outscore the Hummer, but the Equator turned out to be a more well-rounded off-road machine.

Petersen's contest is only open to new models, so the Nissan Frontier -- which reviewers say is no off-road slouch -- wasn't invited. However, experts point out that the Suzuki Equator does have a few advantages over its near twin. First, Suzuki offers a very long, fully transferable powertrain warranty (seven years/100,000 miles); Nissan's coverage is for the standard five years, 60,000 miles. Both trucks carry the usual three-year, 36,000-mile basic warranty.

Second, the Suzuki Equator pickup includes front side airbags as standard equipment; they're optional on the Nissan Frontier. Without those airbags, the Nissan Frontier does only a "marginal" job protecting occupants in side crash tests at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Experts there have not yet tested the Equator, although they have already assigned it ratings of "good" for front crash protection and "poor" for rear crash protection, based on the Frontier's performance.

Finally, some critics think the Equator's slightly chunkier front-end treatment makes it look tougher than the Nissan Frontier. "We prefer the looks of the Suzuki, which definitely has that square-jawed truck look that seems to be popular these days," says Jeremy Korzeniewski at Autoblog.com. Edmunds.com can't decide: "Arguably more handsome than its platform mate (then again, maybe not)," editors say of the Equator.

Equator shares engines with the Nissan Frontier

Like the Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma pickups, reviewers say the Suzuki Equator tows a lot for its size (6,500 pounds max). The Equator's maximum payload is listed at 1,471 pounds, about 100 pounds less than the Frontier and Tacoma.

Suzuki is marketing the Equator toward people who already own Suzuki motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles. Accordingly, the Suzuki website labels the Equator Extended Cab with little icons showing that it can seat four people while hauling an ATV in its 6-foot bed. (The extended-cab Equator's forward-facing rear jump seats are cramped, however, according to critics)  The Suzuki Equator Crew Cab can seat five with its 60/40 split fold-up rear bench and haul a motorcycle in its 5-foot bed (a 6-foot bed is optional). Like the Nissan Frontier, the Suzuki Equator offers no regular cab.

Both of the Nissan Frontier's engines find their way into the Suzuki Equator's engine bay -- the base 152-horsepower, 2.5-liter four-cylinder and the stronger 261-horsepower, 4.0-liter V-6. To get the best fuel economy, choose the base engine, five-speed manual transmission and rear-wheel drive; you'll get an estimated 21 mpg in mixed driving (19 mpg city and 23 mpg highway). That's one mpg less overall than the best Tacoma.

Step up to the V-6 and five-speed automatic transmission, and fuel economy plunges to 17 mpg overall (15 mpg city and 20 mpg highway), according to government estimates. Add four-wheel drive and it falls again, to 16 mpg overall (15 mpg city and 19 mpg  highway).

Equator trim lines, options

The base Suzuki Equator (*Est. $17,220 to $23,210) comes in either crew- or extended-cab styles, but it omits basic features such as air conditioning and a stereo. The step-up Equator Premium (*Est. $21,675) includes all normal basic features in extended cab only.

The Suzuki Equator Sport (*Est. $22,895 to $27,320) comes in either body style; among other things, it adds the spray-on bedliner and Nissan's Utili-Track cargo system that reviews find useful. The crew cab also comes on the Equator RMZ-4 (*Est. $28,550) off-road trim, with an electronic locking differential, high-performance Bilstein shocks, fog lamps and more, although other features (including electronic stability control, hill hold control and hill descent control) are still extra-cost options.

The brand-new Suzuki Equator had no reliability record when we checked. Its parent truck, the Nissan Frontier, gets very high reliability ratings in one major owner survey, but very low marks in J.D. Power and Associates' most recent dependability study.

ConsumerReports.org is usually one of the best sources for pickup truck reviews, but editors had not yet tested the Suzuki Equator when we checked. Experts at Edmunds.com and Autoblog.com provide the best overviews of the Equator and do a good job differentiating it from the Nissan Frontier. The Suzuki Equator review at Motor Trend provides similar information, but it isn't quite as extensive as the others. Petersen's 4 Wheel & Off-Road magazine includes the Equator in a thorough off-road comparison test. MotherProof.com's "mom-reviewer" looks at the Equator from a family point of view. Government and nonprofit agencies are the best source for safety and fuel-economy ratings.